Regarding the recent debate in Fat Friday about why courts ban cell phones, TechnoLawyer member Kevin Grierson weighs in with his take: "As a former litigator, the answer to why cell phones are not allowed in courtrooms is quite plain: judges don't like to be interrupted. The courts in which I practiced had originally allowed pagers (before cell phones were common) provided that the pager was set to vibrate only. Unfortunately, there was always some knucklehead who forgot, and the thing would ring right in the middle of a hearing (of course). The judges grew tired of admonishing (or even fining) attorneys and other courtroom attendees for violating the rules, and finally simply banned both pagers and cell phones for everyone but police officers and deputies. Crazy as it sounds, there are even courts down here where you can't bring a PDA or computer into the courthouse unless you have special permission from the judge."
TechnoLawyer member Steven Schwaber practices in a friendlier court system, writing: "How about this, then: In the Central District of California cell phones are welcome and indeed, in a sense encouraged, to facilitate communication with clients, etc. But only if the phone does not have a camera built into it. Any other feature, fine, but they will confiscate any camera with any kind of built-in imaging until you leave the building. No reason is given for this. If security is the issue, then God help us one and all, since all they do is ask me if the phone has a camera and they take my response at face value (as if a terrorist would level with them). Go figure."
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